Home-grown gifts

Living in South London (as far South as I do) has it's downsides - long travel times into central London being one of them. But having so much outdoor space make's that worthwhile, in the summertime at least (very easy to forget in the dreary winter months).

Yesterday I discovered the joys of working in my garden. I had a couple of dealines which sadly meant I couldn't make it to various events in town last night. But spending a few hours typing away in my lovely garden nearly made-up for it. A glass of white wine while watching a couple of baby field mice frolicking in the evening sun was the icing on the cake.

So, instead of photos direct from the launch of the new EJF pop-up shop, Bobelle's new Covent Garden boutique or Maggie Semple's Secret event with Louise Chunn, here I am hard at work in my garden last night.

Whilst we don't have veggies growing yet, we do have loads of lovely flowers, a herb garden and two fruit trees and it's wonderful this year to see all the hard work of previous summers paying off. And I mean really hard - before we even had the pleasure of trying to grow things we had  so much clearing up to do. The back section (where you see me sitting), formerly an ivy jungle was so overgrown that we discovered not only a seven foot metal park bench circa 1983 and a twelve foot pear tree that were previously hidden, but also two Victorian water tanks burried into the ground. It took us nearly a week to remove them.

But now it's a peaceful corner of South London with an abundance of things growing in it. When I had a client for a style consultation earlier this week I excitedly picked some flowers from the garden and arranged with home-grown fennel leaves. Every time I pass them in the flat I can't help feeling a bit of a warm glow knowing that I grew them (plus they are really pretty and they didn't cost anything).

              

It occurred to me that we now have a great gift resource too - instead of buying mass produced chocolates or flowers when we visit family this weekend, I can to take a bunch of flowers, or perhaps some fresh or dried herbs as a gift. (Think I might also have a go at making some chocolate truffles on Friday as I'm not one for going without chocolate at Easter.)

Another lovely homemade gift idea is gathering some fabric off-cuts and making lavender bags - I made some for Christmas with lavender and rose, but you can add all sorts of things like mint or orange peel.

      

Left: Lavender and Rose bags made from part of an old top I'd cut the bottom off (as it was too long) and kept the fabric. Right: off-cuts from fabric I had used to make my Mum a scarf years ago, trimmed with lace that had been attached to a friend's wedding invite two years ago. (yes, I am a hoarder and I have a lovely box full of ribbons and things). The lavender wasn't from our garden as we don't have quit enough yet...maybe next year.